Grammar and Punctuation at Home
• Reading more – the better your reading ability, the better your writing and comprehension. Try to read
a variety of types of texts to help improve your child’s writing styles. If they are a reluctant reader, read
together. Take it in turns to read a page, paragraph or sentence.
• Read together and talk about what you’ve read – can you do it 15 minutes a day? Can you do it as a family?
If children see you reading they are more likely to read.
• Listening to audio books will help your child to hear how the story was meant to be told, with expression,
they can also hear the effect of punctuation.
• Can your child make up their own bedtime story?
• Create bright posters on tricky concepts together to pin up around the house.
• Write sentences then chop them up and put the words in the wrong order. Can your child put them back
into the correct order?
• Get children to read out what they have written – does it sound right?
• Magnetic word banks are available for a fun way for your child to practise sentence building.
• Write some sentences with errors in them. Can your child help to proof read your work and improve it?
• Are any of the grammar terms new to you? Don’t worry, take a grammatical term a week/month and work
on them together with your child, research them together and see if you can use them in your sentence.
Point out to each other when you have used them. Test each other at the end of the week/ month to
see if you are both confident with how to use them. You can find the grammar your child will be working
on https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/335186/PRIMARY_
national_curriculum_-_English_220714.pdf
• Get your child a grammar dictionary for example Oxford Primary Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling
Dictionary (Oxford Dictionary). This will help with explaining terms. There are also some worksheets
available in line to go with this resource. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/primary-grammardictionary-activities
• Oxford Owls is a free resource with lots of videos about how to support your child with grammar,
punctuation and spellings http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/reading-site/expert-help/grammarpunctuation-and-spelling-made-easy
• Consider visiting an education centre such as Explore Learning where we have writing tools specifically
designed to support children struggling with grammar and punctuation. To find out more about Explore
Learning and to book a free trial session visit http://www.explorelearning.co.uk/
explorelearning.co.uk
/explorelearning
@exploretutors